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Thursday, September 29, 2016

UPDATE: As of Patch 7.1, this method may no longer work or be reliable. Current testing has shown that some WQ trainers work and some don't, making this strategy inconsistent. It's unclear if this is an intended or unintended change. Attempt at your own discretion.

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The "alt character without World Quests unlocked" strat for the Family Familiar achievement is not a secret but it's not very obvious, so here's a quick summary and explanation of it.

What it is: It's essentially a work-around to the once-a-day per toon World Quests, allowing you to complete Family Familiar at a much faster rate than you would normally.

Characters with World Quests unlocked will find that they are only able to battle the active Broken Isles Pet Battle trainers once a day. Winning the encounter will complete the quest, making it impossible to repeat that same battle on the same day with that toon. You have to wait for the quests to rotate and hope each day that one of the Family Familiar trainers pops up.

Using the alt character-strat bypasses this, and allows you to battle that same trainer repeatedly on the same day (only on that specific character). Since the alt doesn't really complete anything (other than the Pet Battle), it doesn't incur a lockout and you'll be able to start and finish the trainer battle over and over. You won't receive any rewards on that character of course, but progress for Family Familiar can be reward enough. :)

This may seem like an exploit, however it was noticed and brought up during Legion Beta. I asked a developer if this was intended behavior for Pet Battle World Quests, and it seems that it is intended. So unless this has changed since beta, this strategy for completing Family Familiar faster is not an exploit.

How to do it: The only requirement is to have a character at max level (110), and DO NOT unlock World Quests.

This means you want to avoid completing the 'earn friendly reputation with X Broken Isles factions' milestone. Alts that are not level 110 will not work for this.

Once you've reached max level, log onto your main character (one that has World Quests unlocked) and see where the Broken Isles Pet Battle quests are located for the day. You can then take that information and hop onto your second character, travel to that location, find the trainer, speak with them and then engage in a Pet Battle over and over.

Note that the Suramar Pet Battle trainers are not included in this. Because they are unlocked during the Suramar storyline, alts without access to World Quests will not have Suramar progress and therefore will be unable to battle these trainers. They can see them and interact with the NPCs, but they won't be able to challenge them to a Pet Battle.

And that's about it!

Last but not least, if you're wondering what addon allows me to track Family Familiar in such an easy and convenient manner in the screenshot above, it's Family Familiar Helper! Made by Gello, who also created and maintains the awesome addon Rematch. Both are must haves for any pet collector/battler.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

After many frustrating attempts, multiple failed strategies, and hours of trial and error... I finally defeated Algalon the Observer in a Pet Battle on the PTR and completed the quest that rewards Stardust!

This battle was possibly the toughest I've ever encountered. Algalon has high health, hard-hitting, Elite legendary pets that had annoying abilities...so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people run into trouble with this battle.

I'm sure some will have no problem defeating him, but if you're like me and find yourself struggling against him, here is the strategy/pets that I used. (I wish I could battle him again so I could test out my strategy to make sure it wasn't just a fluke, but alas you can't fight him once you've defeated him once.)

Keep in mind that this is PTR, so Algalon's pets/battle is subject to change.

3.) Emerald Proto-Whelp - Emerald Dream, Ancient Blessing, and constantly use these two healing abilities whenever they're off cooldown while filling in the gaps with Breath until Cosmos dies.

Notes: You must time Emerald Dream just before Cosmos' force-swap ability. The bunny uses this ability on cooldown, which is annoying. However, when your pet is asleep, Algalon's pet cannot swap it out.

4.) Cosmos dies, Emerald Proto-Whelp should still be alive, Algalon swaps to Constellatius

6.) Infested Bear Cub - Use Hibernate on cooldown and just pass your turn until Constellatius kills all active pets with Apocalypse.

Notes: Because the Infested Bear Cub is Undead, it will take less damage from Constellatius' only attack (Tail Sweep), giving you more room for error.

Algalon's pet uses Wish pretty much on cooldown. Instead of trying to beat through the healing, use its Apocalypse ability against him. Outlast Constellatius by healing your pet and letting Apocalypse expire, killing all active pets.

Emerald Proto-Whelp should be last pet standing. Hooray, you've won!

I'm absolutely ecstatic that I finally defeated this encounter. I went through many different strategies and struggled so much; I thought that I would just have to wait until a pet battle-theorycrafter came up with a viable strategy.

But after consulting the OH and having him give it some attempts, we formulated a solid plan that involved knocking down Algalon's first pet (dragon) because it did massive AOE, avoiding getting force-swapped when facing his second pet (bunny), and then simply letting his third pet (hippo) kill itself. A huge thank you to the OH for helping me brainstorm and test different ideas. :)

Although it was initially VERY frustrating, it was ultimately VERY satisfying completing this Pet Battle. I can't wait to do it again on live once Patch 7.1 is released!

Last but not least, Stardust's idle animation - it turns into a shooting star, flies up into the air and circles around for a little bit before falling back down next to you. NEAT! :D

I'm happy to say that after some testing, it appears that the majority of them do do stuff! Some are only color-changers, but that's still awesome. I hope their color changing ability is intended and they stay that way. :)

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Legion has been a blast so far! However, there seems to be a lack of detailed information in certain areas. More for us to discover/learn, yes, but it can also lead to a lot of confusion and frustration.

One of these 'missing' details is the 4th Pet Battle World Quest in Suramar. I have a feeling that many may not be aware that while the 3 Pet Battle quests around the other Broken Isles zones are guaranteed, there is a 4th WQ that can sometimes appear in Suramar (it's not guaranteed to appear every day).

Not everyone will see this elusive 4th WQ, though. To access it you must complete certain Nightfallen storylines. Suramar and its content is heavily gated, and you won't get the Pet Battle WQ unless you've unlocked them first.

Unfortunately, it's not entirely clear which quest chains unlock which Pet Battle WQ. Wowhead does a great job of listing the Nightfallen quest chains and the other WQs that they unlock, but it doesn't list the Pet Battle ones.

If you have information on which quest chains grant access to which Suramar Pet Battle WQ, please let me know!

If you've completed up to and including Blood and Wine, you should be able to see Clear the Catacombs and Flummoxed, at the very least. These are the ones that I recently completed after having finished the aforementioned storyline.

Another hidden detail about these WQ is that they are on a different timer than the rest of the Pet Battle quests. I think this is due to the fact that you need to unlock them first.

So make sure you progress through the Suramar storyline, and keep checking your map to ensure you don't miss a Pet Battle WQ!